Marion set to draft vicious dog ordinance

Marion set to draft vicious dog ordinance

Council looks to give judge discretionary powers

news@theeveningtimes.com

Marion will soon be putting some teeth into its vicious dog ordinance.

The city council voted to amend its ordinance to give animal control the authority to impound a vicious dog and to allow the judge discretion to have the animal euthanized if necessary.

“The city has a lot of vicious dogs,” City Attorney James “Jimbo” Hale told the city council. “We are in court a lot and we have to deal with it.”

In fact, Hale said just this week they had a case where a police officer was bitten by a dog.

According to Hale, the city’s current ordinance is too vague and does not give the judge the power to have a vicious animal put down.

“The ordinance does not allow him to do a lot of things,” Hale said. “We have to give the judge some discretion. They’re running out of control and he does not have any authority to do much with them.”

The ordinance does have punitive measures in it. The owner can be cited for a vicious dog and has 10 days to pick the animal up from the shelter which they are responsible for paying for.

The law does specify certain breeds such as pit bulls and bull terriers as vicious.

Owners are required to have insurance on those animals and to keep those breeds in a covered kennel as well.

A dog is considered vicious once it bites a person or another animal once.

The law also gives the city the power to require that the animal be removed from the city limits.

Hale presented the council with two separate ordinances to consider — one allowing the judge to impound and euthanize the animal, and one which would allow animal control to enter a property to impound the animal.

After consideration, the council decided they wanted both of those provisions to be included in the amended ordinance governing vicious animals.

“I personally think we need to adopt both of them,” said Councilman Cliff Wood.

“I do too,” Councilman Don Hanks agreed.

Owners would still have 10 days to come and get the animal and three days to either comply with the ordinance or remove the animal from the city.

Hale said the revisions will give the judge the tools he needs to effectively deal with the problem.

“We have some owners who don’t care,” Hale said.

“It will give the ordinance some teeth and allow the judge some latitude to deal with them.”

By Mark Randall